Institut für Sozialwissenschaften des Agrarbereichs

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Assessment of stakeholder perception of implementing power-to-gas in the biogas sector : implications for risk governance
(2019) Pestalozzi, Johanny Arilexis; Bieling, Claudia
The connection of power-to-gas (PtG) with biogas facilities to convert excess renewable electricity into biomethane represents an innovation in the biogas industry. This concept could play a role in stabilizing the German renewable energy system and make the biogas value chain and derived products more competitive and environmentally friendly. With increasing interest in this technology, potential risks, uncertainties and challenges associated with the implementation of PtG in the biogas industry need to be assessed. The biogas sector is controversial in German society mainly due to its environmental and economic impacts and its critical safety deficiencies. Against this background, this thesis aims at analyzing how the German biogas chain could be transformed with the emergence of a PtG concept and at identifying approaches to efficiently tackle potential risks, uncertainties and challenges accompanying this renewable energy concept. The investigation draws on notions of risk perception and risk governance as a theoretical framework to identify and assess influential factors determining risk management for the implementation of PtG in the biogas sector and characterize essential requirements in the process of diffusion of the technology, its acceptance and legitimation. Following a random as well as a purposive sampling strategy, 27 experts representing key interest groups of the German biogas sector, i.e., industry, politics, research and associations, were interviewed face-to-face. Their perspectives on potential environmental, safety, sociopolitical and techno-economic risks and challenges that could hinder the implementation of PtG in the biogas value chain were systematically examined with the method of qualitative content analysis. With this technique, conclusions were derived based on a thorough scrutiny of the data collected. Overall, the participants of this study perceived a low risk of accidents, such as fires, explosions and environmental pollution, from biogas installations running with a PtG concept. They identified a lack of business models, missing political incentives as well as stigmatization of the sector as the main challenges in the adoption of PtG in the biogas sector. The stakeholders emphasized a knowledge gap in the general public to explain the low popularity of the biogas sector and its biobased products. In a successful deployment of this technological concept, the interviewees envisioned a replacement of farm-based biogas plants with fully industrialized facilities. The interviewed experts strongly emphasized the existence of regulations as the principal means to avoid potential technological risks. The perception of the stakeholders corresponds with hierarchists as in the Cultural Theory of Risk. This mindset influences the way the experts recognize, manage and communicate risks. The participants prominently identified politicians as the primary accountable actors to handle risks, challenges and uncertainties of biogas associated with PtG. Although the media was broadly seen as a knowledge broker, the interviewees did not consider it as an instrument for effective risk communication to deal with distrust and stigmatization in the public and the controversies influencing the biogas sector, which could potentially affect the diffusion of PtG in the industry. The present study delivers key insights for the governance of the adoption of this technological concept in German society. In order to create a joint understanding among relevant stakeholders, facilitate informed decision-making and ultimately promote legitimacy for this technology, it is recommended to increase risk awareness among actors dealing with biogas and PtG. It is essential to foster deliberate communication among the multiple interest groups on diverging perceptions of risk and corresponding management options, so that an effective, accountable and participatory strategy to risk governance can be developed.
Landscape stewardship in under-use contexts : a transdisciplinary social-ecological analysis of common pastures in the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve
(2024) Brossette, Florian; Bieling, Claudia
The common pastures of the UNESCO Black Forest Biosphere Reserve are the ecological hotspot, identification element and key feature of the cultural landscape in the southern Black Forest, Germany. In the second half of the 20th century, the Black Forest has witnessed an ongoing decline in grazing activity and pastureland, so that diverse actors of civil society, politics and science are concerned with how the social-ecological importance of the Black Forest common pastures can be sustained. Declining land use and the abandonment of traditional land-use practices constitute an important threat to cultural landscapes not only in the Black Forest, but also in many places all across the world. However, sustainability sciences have been mostly concerned with questions of overexploitation so far. Research addressing the social and ecological drivers of under use, and their interplay, is still lacking. Recent studies on under-used cultural landscapes offer insights into governance arrangements. Still, the consideration of relationships between people and their environment, a key approach to analyse and lever sustainability, are yet missing in the context of under use. Against this background, this cumulative dissertation draws on common pastures in the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve as a case study to develop social-ecological perspectives for cultural landscapes threatened by under use. The three research articles that form the basis for this dissertation explore the diverse interactions between humans and their environment to ask the question what changes in terms of adaptations and transformations are required to sustain the common pastures. The dissertation asks how conceptual insights on organizational design of common pastures, adaptive governance and social-ecological resilience help to grasp and to advance farmers’ perspectives on future pathways for grassland which is endangered by under use. Furthermore, the dissertation poses the question on how resonance theory, a qualitative analysis of relationships between self and world, contributes to a better understanding of the different types of relationships that characterise action in pursuit of landscape sustainability, referred to by the term landscape stewardship. This dissertation follows a transdisciplinary research approach, in the sense that practitioners motivated this research, provided data and validated the findings. The author’s practical experience as staff of the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve links research, practice and landscape stewardship. The dissertation is rooted in social-ecological systems thinking. The notion of social-ecological systems understands common pastures in terms of interlinked social and ecological elements and processes. The research articles make use of the concepts of Ostrom Design Principles, Social-Ecological Systems Framework, social-ecological Resilience Principles, relational approaches in social-ecological thinking and Resonance Theory. Resonance characterizes the occurrence of meaningful relational encounters that potentially transform self-world relationships. The notion of landscape stewardship refers to the diversity of meanings that motivate action in pursuit of landscape sustainability. Landscape stewardship thus serves as a frame to connect the different concepts and research articles of the present work. Rooted in empirical social research, this dissertation adopts a qualitative methodology but includes quantitative data to illustrate and support qualitative findings. Given the rich conceptual foundation and transdisciplinary approach, the results of this dissertation allow for both conceptual advancements and practical recommendations. The results of the research articles show that place-based practical perspectives and social-ecological concepts reinforce one another. Practitioners’ central assertion that diverse small-scale farming initiatives are required to sustain common pastures illustrate and substantiate the conceptual groundings of adaptive governance, resilience, and Resonance Theory. Concerning adaptive governance, this research finds that a central element of organizational design in the under-use context of the Black Forest common pastures is to include all actors that take advantage of the cultural landscape. This implies to motivate and incentivize diverse actor groups, such as tourism and local population, to contribute to landscape stewardship in a way that corresponds to their benefits. Relational and resilience arguments emphasize the importance of multiple and diverse structures in grassland farming. This implies that specific support to match the needs and challenges of initiatives such as landcare groups, common pasture organizations or small-scale farming is required. The resilience perspective adds to this in highlighting that polycentric governance should find stronger application to encourage reciprocal learning and maintain the social-ecological diversity connected to common pastures. The introduction of Resonance Theory into social-ecological research provides important contributions to the debate on sustainability transformations. By emphasizing the uncontrollable and unpredictable character of meaningful relationships, Resonance Theory shifts the practical and conceptual focus on agency towards the quality of relationships. The axes of resonance provide a framework to analyse different types of relationships between self and world that are present in initiatives of landscape stewardship. From the perspective of Resonance Theory, adaptive governance should be directed towards enabling or favouring the emergence of meaningful relationships between people, livestock and the landscape. The practical and conceptual recommendations to sustain common pastures call for changes in terms of adaptations and transformations. The importance and consequences of these key changes, such as improved commercialization of pasture products, the integration of local people into landscape stewardship, or to fit the administrative frameworks and support schemes to the social-ecological reality of common pastures, depend on the social-ecological perspective of analysis. As grassland farmers or public administration have their specific view on common pastures, the anticipated effects of and the required commitment to these changes differ, so that they may appear as adaptations to one group, while constituting transformations to another. To conclude, this dissertation shows that the application of different social-ecological concepts to rich contextual data advances both conceptual and practical understandings of under use and the interconnectedness of humans and their environment. In bringing together science and practice, biosphere reserves are particularly suited for transdisciplinary approaches. For supporting landscape stewardship, the Black Forest Biosphere Reserve will need to include more actors benefiting from common pastures to contribute to their sustenance. Moreover, it is important to create conditions that enable meaningful relationships and resonance in landscape stewardship. There is a need for further place-based research in under-use contexts to provide more knowledge of the organizational and relational aspects that characterize under use. To benefit from the full potential of the resonance perspective, it is necessary to show how contextual, institutional and cultural conditions that foster or inhibit resonance can be accounted for in social-ecological research.
Social assessment of miscanthus cultivation in Croatia: Assessing farmers' preferences and willingness to cultivate the crop
(2023) Marting Vidaurre, Nirvana A.; Jurišić, Vanja; Bieling, Claudia; Magenau, Elena; Wagner, Moritz; Kiesel, Andreas; Lewandowski, Iris
Social aspects of miscanthus cultivation have been investigated in a limited way in the scientific literature. Adopting existing frameworks for social life‐cycle assessment enables assessments to include numerous social aspects; however, the relevance of these aspects depends on the local context. This study aims to identify the most relevant social aspects from the farmers' perspective using a previously proposed framework for the assessment of the stakeholder ‘farmer’. It is based on a case study for miscanthus production in Sisak Moslavina in Croatia. The existence of abandoned lands in Croatia presents an opportunity for the cultivation of miscanthus as a potential source of biomass for the production of bio‐based materials and fuels. The study seeks to assess the feasibility of cultivating miscanthus in the region, taking into account potential challenges and opportunities, as well as farmers' willingness to adopt the crop, and to understand the reasons behind land abandonment. We conducted a survey among 44 farmers in the region and used a scoring method to identify the most relevant social aspects. The aspects most valued by the farmers were health and safety, access to water, land consolidation and rights, income and local employment, and food security. Responses to the question of whether they would adopt the crop highlight the importance of an established market, good trading conditions and profitability of cultivation. The survey also enabled an understanding of farmers' preferences with respect to the production conditions of crops. The farmers regarded the provision of subsidies as one of the main factors that render a crop attractive. Opportunities for the adoption of the miscanthus cultivation include high yields and low input requirements. Barriers include land conflicts and land availability. Despite the opportunities for miscanthus development in the region, there are important challenges to consider for successful implementation of the crop.

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